Educating Juveniles who are in Jail

Educating Juveniles 1

The number of incarcerated youths in the country indicates that a large number of our youths are not receiving the education that they need to prepare them for life . The federal government had ed that education be an integral part in the services offered in prisons , correctional facilities and detention centers (Lee , 1998 . However , this has not been fully implemented in all prison facilities , problems in educating juveniles in prisons abound , the lack of funding , the lack of teachers and instructional materials , the lack of facilities and overcrowding . It

br is the government 's responsibility to provide education to all children but in most instances the public schools are tasked in seeing to it that juveniles receive it wherever they may be . This discusses the conditions in which incarcerated youths are taught and the problems that hinder the prisons and detentions facilities in ensuring that all incarcerated youths receive quality education

Based on a recent survey (Sickmund , 2004 ) found that 85 percent of juveniles and 68 percent of committed juveniles are detained in public facilities , while 7 ,600 of those below 18 years old are in adult prisons . It was also reported that of the juveniles in correctional , 63 percent are minorities , were majority are blacks (40 , followed by Hispanics (19 ) and American Indians (2 ) and Asian (2 , while whites are 37 percent , and 65 percent are aged 15 to 17 . From this data , it is evident that most of the children detained in prisons and correction facilities need to be in school and being locked down would mean that they would miss a great deal of

Educating Juveniles 2

school days and would eventually make it difficult for them to go back to school after being imprisoned . Through the years , it has been found that inmates who have underwent education and training programs were less likely to be imprisoned recurrently and to be employed (Stephens Arnette , 2000 . In a report , it was found that juveniles with high academic performance and high frequency of attendance in educational programs are more likely to return to school and have lesser chances of being re-arrested , and those who earn a high school diploma while incarcerated have fewer rates of being re-arrested and those with strong school attachment are more likely to go back to school (Wang et .al 2005 . Moreover , not being able to return to school for incarcerated youths have adverse consequences . A study found that incarcerated youth are less likely to return to school upon release and of those who do return , most also drop out or withdraw within the year of re-enrolling and after 4 years only 15 percent graduated from high school (Zeidenberg Holman , 2004 . Without completing even high school , these juveniles are at a disadvantage and may have profound effect even into adulthood The government has mandated that educational programs be integrated in detention and correctionals

Ideally , education should be a part of the experience of juveniles in prison , which should focus not only on...